Persona (The 'Professional' series) (4 page)

Oh gosh,
Ella was inwardly cringing. 
Why on earth did I start with that
question for?  It wasn’t even on the list!  A great way to make sure
the working relationship was going to be a good one, not!
 

She looked
at him, he looked annoyed with her.  She had to sort herself out.
 She realised with a start that she had started off sharply as she had
been jealous of the kiss.  Jeff had never kissed her like that! 

She calmed
herself, there was no reason to feel jealous about Daniel kissing the vision in
lilac and she felt foolish to think she had.  She had nothing to do with
his private life, only report on it.  She wasn’t his girlfriend, for
goodness sake!

She took
another steadying breath, switched on the recorder and preceded with the
interview.  The planned one.

~~~~

After a
couple of hours of questions, sandwiches and drinks, courtesy of Eric; Daniel
sat back in the seat, put his head back and relaxed.  After that first
slightly awkward question, the rest had been straight forward, the usual about
childhood, family, career, future.  He had actually enjoyed telling Ella
about the things Eric and himself had got up to as kids.  They had all
laughed when telling their tales, Eric butting in now and again to
elaborate. 

Daniel
winced slightly.  There was only one point that had become slightly
uncomfortable.  Ella had obviously got warmer and had taken her suit
jacket off to put over the back of the chair.  When she had twisted
around, the opening on her blouse had gapped apart slightly.  Daniel had
ended up feeling like a pimpled faced teenager, trying to check out what was
underneath that cool white blouse.  She turned and caught him staring at
her breasts!  She had made a little
o
with her mouth and looked
down to see if her buttons had opened.  He felt really foolish, for
goodness sake, he was an adult! He knew exactly what was contained inside a
bra.  But for some reason, the slight glimpse of the white lace under her
blouse had got him having to rearrange his sitting position, so neither of them
became too embarrassed.

Daniel
lifted his head and yawned.  “Sorry, late night.”  He watched her
blanch.  It immediately came to him what she would be thinking - that he
was referring to Cassandra.  He truly wasn’t, so he tried to change the
subject.  “So, I guess that you are going to be following me around for a
while?  Alice, my agent, says that you need to stay here most nights
too?” 

He looked at
her, eyes narrowing slightly, for any indication whether she was comfortable
with this arrangement or not.  She seemed to be fine, so a devilish
impulse came over him.  He wanted to ruffle her again, see her blush.
“Great, I have a couple of bedrooms.”  He had four, but he wasn’t going to
tell her that yet.  “Eric stays in one…”  He drew it out for affect.
 “So I guess… you can share mine.”  He put on his most charming smile.

Ella choked
on the coffee she had been sipping.  She felt Eric tap her on the back and
looked at Daniel’s huge wolfish grin.  “Well, that could be a big
problem.  I mean… if there is no room… I could get a hotel somewhere I
suppose?”  Ella was thinking on her feet.  She caught Eric raising
his eyebrows at Daniel.  “That was some kind of joke, I presume?” she
countered.

“Doesn’t
need to be a joke, El.  I wouldn’t mind you sharing my bed.”  The
 wolfish grin was still splitting his face.

“Well, I
don’t think my boyfriend would approve.”  Crumbs, what made her say
that?  Using Jeff as some sort of shield to wield when she became
uncomfortable with the banter?  She was used to batting around sexual
innuendoes and banter in work, so why did his make her feel so uncomfortable?

Daniel felt
his joyful mood drop suddenly to his toes.  She had a boyfriend. 
Lover, no doubt, they were not school children anymore.  He should have
figured she would have.  She must be around twenty five, beautiful and had
a lovely curvy figure.  Of course she would have a lover, why wouldn’t
she?  So why did that piece of information about her, suddenly make him
feel annoyed? 

All of a
sudden Daniel felt claustrophobic and needed to get out. “Right, Eric.” 
He stood up and stretched his arms, trying to look unaffected by her boyfriend
comment.  “Could you show Miss Hender to the spare bedroom?”

Eric noticed
that Daniel had gone from calling her El to Miss Hender.  Interesting, but
he wisely did not comment while he picked up her bags.

Daniel continued
as he waited for her to look at him.  “The guest bedroom has been made up
for you.  You should find everything you need there.”   He
turned to Eric who was standing ready to show Ella to her room.  “Eric, I
forgot to tell you that I have to go out this evening.  You will have the
pleasure of dining alone with Miss Hender tonight.”

Eric stared
straight at his friend trying to work out what was going on.  Daniel never
forgot to tell him about his plans.  Actually, he was the one that usually
arranged them for him.  He raised his eyebrows slightly and cocked his
head in quiet questioning behind Ella’s back.  He would have to find out
later what on earth was going on.

Ella felt
slightly disappointed that Daniel would not be there for dinner tonight. 
How silly to feel disappointed, she reprimanded herself.  She had enjoyed
Eric’s inputs today and she was sure she would enjoy his company.  It
would be good to get a different perspective of Daniel too.  Eric seemed a
very funny, loyal and genuine man.  Someone, no doubt, that was the
opposite of Daniel. 

She would
settle herself into her room, hang up her clothes, before they became too
wrinkled and then, enjoy her evening.

After
showing her the way, Eric placed her suitcase onto a stool.  “The towels
are in the cupboard in the en-suite.  New toothbrushes are there too, just
in case you have forgotten yours.”  He smiled at her.  He had the
same megawatt smile as Daniel, it just didn’t affect her in the same way.

Toothbrushes? 
I bet those come in handy whenever Daniel chooses to bring his lady friends
home
Ella thought.  Wow, since when had she become catty?  She
smiled at Eric trying to cover any guilt her thoughts had caused her.

“I’ll leave
you to it for an hour or so.  Have a relax.  I’ll book us a table in
a little Italian just around the corner, if that is okay?  For about 8
o’clock?  I’m afraid my cooking isn’t up too much and as Daniel usually
cooks,  a restaurant it is.  If that is acceptable with you?” 
Eric was standing by the door ready to retreat into the living room.

“Yes, of
course, that would be wonderful.  I could do with a bath first.  The
drive here was long and I have been sitting in that chair most of the
day.  See you at about quarter to eight then.” 

Eric smiled
and exited, closing her bedroom door behind him.

Ella sat on
the bed and slipped off her shoes.  She rubbed them to get feeling back
into them.  Why on earth hadn’t she taken them off earlier?  It
wasn’t as if they had been anywhere.   She reached under her skirt to
start rolling down her lace topped stockings.  It felt glorious to put her
naked feet in the thick pile of the smoky grey carpet.  The pile poked
through her toes as she wiggled out the stiffness that being stuck in shoes
most of the day had caused.

She lay back
on the bed.  It was time to ring Jeff to say that she had arrived
safely.  She wondered if he was worried about her travelling all that
way.  Ella silently chastised herself.  Of course he wouldn’t be as
he knew what a competent driver she was. 

She dialled
his number and waited for him to pick up.  No answer.  Surely he was
home from work by now?  Perhaps he had gone out for a meal instead of
cooking for himself?  She left a message saying that she would ring him
back after her meal out.

Ella dragged
herself off the comfortable bed.  She would be sleeping if she did not
move herself.  As she laid her stockings on the back of a deep purple
chair, she took time to look around the room.  What a feminine looking
room - a little strange for what was essentially, a bachelor pad. 
Beautiful grey curtains with white roses hung from the windows, matching the
throw over the double, or was it a queen sized bed?  Purple cushions
matched the chair, flowers and canvases that adorned the walls.  There was
a large white dressing table, mirror and chair against one wall, French
looking.  The room was lovely.   

She
continued getting undressed and folding her clothes on one of the chairs. 
She slipped on her dressing gown, picked up her toiletries and went to inspect
the en-suite. 

Ella
gasped.  This wasn’t every ones idea of an en-suite.  It was huge,
bigger than her main bathroom in her house.  A massive bronze bath stood
proud in the middle of the tiled floor.  Its taps started from the floor,
all the way up and over the bath.  As she walked over, she noticed the
warmth seeping to her feet, under floor heating, nice. 

Along one
wall were two basins, side by side.  She had to touch.  What were
they made out of?  She wasn’t an expert, but the round bowls looked like
some sort of onyx.  A large mirror covered the wall above the sinks. 
The mirrored cabinets were full of toiletries; she opened a door. 
 There were men’s and women’s toiletries. Ella found herself blush when
she spotted a box of condoms sitting on one of the shelves.  She closed
the door quickly.  Obviously, that was Daniel’s cupboard!  

Reflected in
the mirror, she noticed a very large shower cubicle behind her.  Crumbs,
you could have a party in that, it was so large.  However, Ella decided
she fancied a bath.  She turned the taps on and added some of the
raspberry bubble bath she had picked up in the supermarket before she had
come.  She did not want to use the expensive looking ones that sat in the
glass cabinets.

Looking
around for somewhere to hang her dressing gown, she noticed a door.  She
tested the handle.  It opened, so she snuck a peek inside as she thought
it was a store cupboard.  No, it was a masculine looking bedroom. 
She smelled a familiar scent; one that she had spent most of the day with. 
This was Daniel’s bedroom! 

She shut the
door quickly, embarrassed just in case she got caught.  Ella cursed
silently, for goodness sake, Daniel had already left.  She was a
journalist too, they liked sneaking around, finding out things they could use
to paint a good picture of their subject.  She persuaded herself to have
another look.  Daniel had gone out for the evening, he would never know,
would he?

She felt
surprisingly guilty poking around.  She tried not to look at the massive bed
which dominated the room.  Dark blue sheets adorned the bed, which to her
surprise, was made.  No evidence of his activity this morning then! 

She quietly
opened the large wardrobe, hoping it wouldn’t squeak and alert Eric to her
activities.  Just as she thought, full of designer clothes.  Well,
Daniel Spittle believed in looking good.  Although, to be honest, with a
face and body like Daniel, he would look good in anything he wore.

 A
strong wave of guilt ran through her, so she decided that that was enough. 
She didn’t feel comfortable poking around, reporter or not.  As she turned
she noticed his en-suite.  Oh good, she thought, he did not need access to
the bathroom she would be using. That made her feel more comfortable.

~~~~

She lay back
with the bubbles up to her neck.  She checked again that the lock, between
the bathroom and Daniel’s bedroom, was firmly locked.  She did not want
Daniel to be able to walk straight into her bathroom.   He had access
to a toilet, so she reasoned that he did not need access to this one. 

Ella closed
her eyes and tried to relax.  Perhaps this assignment was not going to be
so easy after all.  She was far too aware of Daniel’s presence for her to
feel entirely comfortable.  She shouldn’t be feeling like this.  She
had a boyfriend at home and Daniel had obviously gone out tonight with
someone. 

She sat up
splashing bubbles everywhere.  Oh my goodness!  What happens if he
brought a woman home tonight?  His bedroom was next door.  Would she
hear anything?  She lay back and submerged herself under the cooling water
and depleting bubbles.  Hopefully, those cushions on her bed were
soundproof.  She sure hoped they were!

~~~~

The meal
with Eric had been wonderful.  The restaurant, which was within easy
walking distance, was charming.  The smells of Italian food had hit her
when they entered the cosy interior.  She smiled to herself when the
waitress led them to an out of the way cosy table with a polite,
Your usual
table, Sir?
  Ella briefly wondered if it was Eric’s or Daniel’s usual
table, out of the way of prying eyes. 

Eric, as she
had expected, had been charming throughout the whole evening.  One of
life’s true gentlemen; pulling out her chair, helping her with her coat,
opening doors.  She briefly wondered if Daniel had the same manners. She
would soon find out. 

Ella felt
full now as she relaxed on the chair, her feet tucked under her.  The thin
crust and ‘all the toppings’ pizza was sitting slightly heavy on her
stomach.  When would she learn not to stuff herself?  Did it really
matter? She loved food.  She enjoyed it too much to worry about
dieting.